This invention relates to sleeping surfaces, and in particular to an improved combination tent and sleeping surface which provides a cot-like sleeping surface without the use of longitudinal compression members (stiffeners).
There are presently known many different types of portable sleeping surfaces, such as cots, air mattresses, foam blocks and the like, all of which offer a flat, comfortable sleeping surface, given level and safe terrain on which to set them up. Hammocks of various types have been used where the terrain is not suitable or ground-supported sleeping surfaces, but hammocks have the disadvantage that, given tie points of less than infinite strength, the occupant's middle must sag in relation to his head and feet. Sag is also necessary to give the hammock any degree of stability. Hammocks suffer from the further disadvantage that the tension in the sleeping surface is almost entirely longitudinal (lengthwise) of the hammock. Therefore, the occupant's body acts as a transverse spreader, and the sides of the hammock tend to collapse inward around the occupant. Furthermore, the longitudinal tension supporting the occupant's trunk is substantially the same as the tension supporting the occupant's head and feet, thus making the longitudinal strip on which the occupant is lying uncomfortably rigid.